By Bill Heaney
Homelessness is not new in West Dunbartonshire. People of a certain age will remember the Model lodging house in the old Artizan in Dumbarton and then there was the Poorhouse in Townend Road.
Dossers slept in the condemned tenements of the old Vennel and there is reference in local history about a lodger being murdered while he was sleeping in an Alexandria slum.
The desperate situation was exacerbated by damp, cold jerry-built homes built as housing schemes after the Second World War, which the authorities consistently explained was caused by “condensation”.
College Street, the old Vennel and Dumbarton High Street where homeless men slept in the slums of condemned houses and single-ends with outside toilets. Now families sleep in damp, unfit houses and young people “sofa surf” with friends to seek shelter through the night.
Only once however in half a century of covering local affairs in Dumbarton have I heard of anyone dying out in the open, an old man who slept in the long grass behind the shops in the High Street.
However, it appears that in the 21st century we are back where we started with homelessness.
And the government appear to be unable to do anything about it.
Dumbarton MSP Jackie Baillie this week declared a housing emergency across Dumbarton and the Vale of Leven after it was revealed that five people are estimated to have died while homeless in West Dunbartonshire in 2022 alone.
“The rate in West Dunbartonshire is devastatingly higher than the Scottish average,” she said.
Meanwhile Argyll & Bute Council has already declared a housing emergency and it was estimated that there were two homeless deaths in Argyll and Bute, which includes Helensburgh and the Rosneath Peninsula, over the same period.
The figures released today also revealed the distressing impact this has on Scotland’s young people, with almost half of all estimated homeless deaths coming from people under 45.
This catastrophic figure comes just one week after the SNP refused to support Labour’s motion to declare a housing crisis in Scotland, to put pressure on the Scottish Government to tackle rising rent prices and inappropriate accommodation for those experiencing homelessness.
It also comes as SOLACE, representing Local Government Chief Executives, warned of local authority housing and homelessness services “experiencing unsustainable pressure reflecting the critical lack of capacity in local housing systems in Scotland.”
Jackie Baillie has said that ‘one death is one too many’ and that both the SNP and the Greens are ‘in denial’ about the scale of Scotland’s housing crisis .
The Dumbarton constituency MSP is inundated with inquiries on an almost daily basis from people across Dumbarton, the Vale of Leven, Helensburgh and Lomond who are inadequately housed.
Both West Dunbartonshire and Argyll and Bute Councils are struggling with a lack of properties.
Meanwhile data released in September revealed that 210 households with children across West Dunbartonshire and Argyll and Bute have been stuck in temporary accommodation for between six months and one year.
Jackie Baillie said: “These truly heartbreaking figures lay bare the scale of Scotland’s housing crisis. Every single life lost due to homelessness is a tragedy and even one death is one too many. Each number represents someone let down by the systems which are meant to support them.
“There is a chronic lack of social housing across Scotland and I am all too aware of the problems which exist locally. I constantly hear from constituents across the area who are struggling to find an appropriate house for their needs and size.
“In the past year, homelessness has hit a record high, mortgages have soared, and under the SNP new home building has plummeted. However they and the Greens think everything is fine.
“The SNP and the Greens are in complete denial about the work that needs to be done to reverse the problems.
“We simply cannot sit idly by and allow this tragedy to continue. We need to declare a housing emergency right now and work with local charities and authorities to ensure as much support as possible is given to those experiencing homelessness.”
Why are our politicians not raiding the issue of the million or so Scots living in fuel poverty struggling to heat their homes as temperatures plunge below zero.
Indeed as I write the the temperature this morning sits at minus two degrees centigrade with the country now in the grip of a prolonged cold snap.
With no, or limited money for the meter, many many many go cold as the winter artic conditions bite.
And all in a country blessed with oil, gas, hydro and wind it is an absolute onslaught of horror. What human rights when folks are forced to live in cold houses in a land of plenty.
But history repeats.
Over a million died over the years of the Irish Potato Famine whilst food was exported from Ireland. And today we have fuel and energy famine whilst our energy is exported.
And make no mistake, aside of the misery of cold homes, homes where the meter has run out, homes that cannot afford the bills, people actually die. Older people, health compromised people all at this time of year suffer increased mortality rates.
The reality of today’s Scotland is harsh and brutal
Bit as one energy corporate said last year, folks can always dance to keep warm!
So dance folks, dance the dance of those who hang at the end of a gibbet.